


Misunderstanding

by mggislife2789



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2017-10-06
Packaged: 2019-01-09 14:11:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12278172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry. ;)





	Misunderstanding

Spencer never really made a habit out of letting people in on his personal life, no matter how close they were with him, so the entire team was left stunned when he mentioned in passing that he had met a woman at his court-mandated group therapy sessions and once she’d left group (after completing her necessary session) they’d started seeing each other. 

Without missing a beat, or the wide-open, gaping mouths of his teammates, he left the room to go grab his customary cup of coffee, leaving them wondering about the new woman in his life. He hadn’t let anyone in since Maeve; this was a huge step for him. “Woah,” Tara said, her smile soft as she followed Spencer’s steps out of the office. “That’s great.”

“It’s about time he had some happiness in his life,” Luke added.

JJ, Emily and Rossi chuckled under their breaths. “You have no idea,” JJ replied. “I just hope she’s good to him. He can’t handle anymore heartbreak.”

Just at that moment, Garcia walked into the office. “Who can’t handle heartbreak? What’s happening?”

“Reid has a girlfriend. They met in therapy,” Emily clarified. After being reinstated with stipulations, she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t at least a little bit worried about him, but knowing he had someone in his life to talk to, if it wasn’t any of them, was comforting.

Garcia’s mouth hung open, her head rapidly glancing between everyone at the table and Spencer who was on his way back to the room with coffee in hand. Before she even had the chance to ask him all the questions she wanted answered, Emily mentioned they had a case, so for now, she had to let it go.

…Reid had a girlfriend.

—-

“What are you doing?” Emily asked, her voice tinged with reproach. 

Garcia knew she shouldn’t be doing this, but Reid had been through so much and the last thing she wanted to do was see him get hurt by this new woman…so she’d done a little background on her. “Just…you know…searching Y/N’s internet history to see if there was anything that put up a red flag.” She grimaced as Emily cut her eyes at her friend.

“Garcia!” She hissed. “You can’t do that! This is not what FBI resources are allocated for!”

Yes…yes…she knew that, but her love for her small boy who deserved nothing but love overrode her desire to stick to agency protocol. “I just want to make sure he doesn’t get hurt,” she replied softly. “He can’t take much more. He deserves to be happy. I just want to make sure he’s in good hands.”

Emily sighed, wavering between scolding her some more and admitting that she wanted to make sure Spencer was cared for as well. “Finish up what you’re doing now and then do this at home.”

“Okay,” she replied. Turning around, she continued to clap away at the keyboard, when all of a sudden, a wave of images popped up on the screen. An array of pictures entirely to similar to some of their cases popped up.

“Is this from the case?” Emily asked, not really recognizing the pictures but too worried to think they might be anything else.

There were pictures of skulls, some devoid of skin, some in varying stages of decay. Others were pictures of dead animals. Knives again skin. Bleeding wounds. “No…” Garcia whispered. “These are in her search history. Spencer’s new girlfriend.”

Spencer didn’t deserve this. What could these possibly be doing on her computer? Why would she look up such violent and disturbing images?

—-

“What should we do?” Tara asked, flipping through the images on her phone. After seeing such troubling images scattered throughout Y/N’s search history, Garcia and Emily mentioned it to the rest of the team. All of them were just as put off, wondering why someone would look at such things willingly if they weren’t troubled themselves. “Should we tell him?”

There were a number of benign reasons someone could be looking at these types of things. It could be part of therapy. Maybe she wrote in her spare time and wanted to be as detailed as possible. But what if it wasn’t benign? What if Spencer had gotten himself into a relationship with a woman that was too much like the people they caught? 

“We’re probably overreacting,” Rossi said matter-of-factly. “There’s probably an explanation. But considering everything the kid has been through, I’d rather be safe than sorry and bring it up with him.” Looking across the room, he caught Garcia’s eyes. “Garcia, I’ve known you for a long time now…you really can’t help yourself, can you?”

“No! I’m sorry!” She exclaimed as she hung her head in her hands. “I can’t. I want to protect him so I push the boundaries a bit, but-”

“Pushing the boundaries would be asking invasive questions,” Rossi laughed. “You break the circle and walk right in…but your heart is in the right place and I don’t want him getting hurt either.”

Luke glanced around at his teammates. “So…who gets the task of bringing it up to Spencer. Not it!”

“Not it!” 

“Not it!” 

It was like a schoolyard. “Not it!”

“Dammit,” Emily sighed. “Really?” Looking around, she realized, that in fact, really. She had to bring this up with him. “You guys suck.”

—-

Later that night, Emily and Spencer were the only ones left in the office burning the midnight oil. As Unit Chief, Emily had inherited the paperwork that went with it, hence her staying late all the time, but since Spencer had been reinstated with the stipulation that after every 100 days he had to take 30 off, she assumed that he’d been staying late every night to get as much work done as he could - seemingly make up for the time he’d been out. She’d set up seminars for him to teach while he was off duty from work, but she knew it was going to take some adjustment. 

This was as good a time as any to bring it up. Taking a deep breath, she stood up from her desk and wandered out toward his. Apparently, she’d been stalling because Spencer spoke before she even approached. “What’s up, Emily?”

Her mouth dropped open, but she stumbled to find her words. “Okay, I’m going to be really straight with you-”

“Is about me coming back to work?” Although he was going to need a lot of help getting through his recent stay in prison, it was going to be ten times worse if his team didn’t even believe in him.

Immediately, Emily shook her head. “No, it’s about Y/N.”

His face scrunched up in confusion. “Y/N? What about her? You guys haven’t even met her yet?” After a few moments, he jumped to the right conclusion before Emily said anything. “Let me guess. Did Garcia look into her?”

Emily snickered. “Yea, she did, and umm…she found some images on her search history that put up a few red flags for us. There could be an explanation, but we wanted to err on the side of caution.”

As he scrolled through the pictures, he started to smile. “Okay, this could look bad, but it’s not what you think. She’s not disturbed or anything; she’s had a difficult past and she expresses herself through art, very macabre art. The pictures are inspiration and guidance when she’s drawing skulls and things.”

She breathed an enormous sigh of relief and laughed. “Oh thank god. I know looking into her was crossing a line and I did talk to Garcia about it, but-”

Spencer waved his hand dismissively. “Normally, I would be annoyed, but after everything that’s happened…I’m just glad to be home. I’ll talk to everyone tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Emily said, yawning as she stood up to go grab her coat. The rest of the paperwork would have to wait until morning. “And Spence?”

“Yea?”

“I’m glad you’re home too.”


End file.
